BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Matt Williams Reaches No. 7 on the Salary List

By MURRAY CHASS

Published: December 29, 1993

The San Francisco Giants can't blame Will Clark if he feels they have made him feel left out.

The Giants reached agreement yesterday on a five-year, $30.75 million contract with Matt Williams, who becomes baseball's seventh highest-paid player based on a $6.1 million yearly average. Williams, the Giants' third baseman, could have been a free agent after next season. Six weeks ago, they re-signed their free-agent second baseman, Robby Thompson, to a three-year, $12 million contract.

But in negotiating with Clark, their free-agent first baseman and a stalwart of their lineup for eight seasons, the Giants established a limit that was not close to being competitive in the open market.

"Bob Quinn made it clear that he was going to have greater flexibility on Williams than with Clark," Jeff Moorad, agent for both players, said yesterday from his office in Newport Beach, Calif. "From the start of the off season, the Giants indicated they were interested in locking Matt into a long-term deal. Thankfully, Will had other choices."

Quinn, the Giants' general manager, said the club had offered Clark "what we felt was a fair-market value for Will Clark."

That was a three-year contract, with an option for a fourth year, worth a guaranteed $15 million. But the Baltimore Orioles and the Texas Rangers each offered Clark five years guaranteed, and he signed with the Rangers for nearly double the Giants' figure.

Why didn't the Giants want to give the 29-year-old Clark five years?

"A lot of factors too lengthy to elaborate," Quinn said in a conference call.

The contract the Giants gave Williams gives the club two players in the top seven. A year ago, they signed Barry Bonds to the most lucrative contract in baseball history.

Williams, 28 years old, will receive a $1.5 million signing bonus and salaries of $3.75 million, $5.5 million, $6.25 million, $6.75 million and $7 million. Among contracts in place, the Giants in 1998 are scheduled to become the first team to have two players each earning at least $7 million in pure salary. Bonds will have an $8.5 million salary that season.

While earning $2,275,000 this past season, Williams bounced back from an off-year in 1992 and reached career highs in batting average (.294), home runs (38) and runs scored (105). He drove in 110 runs, second best in his six-year tenure with the Giants and fifth in the National League.

He placed third in the league in home runs and slugging percentage (.561) and second in total bases (325) and extra-base hits (75).

Asked if he felt the need to fill the leadership void created by the loss of Clark, Williams said: "I'm not a rah-rah type guy; I never have been. I don't think I need to be. If I lead by the way I play, great. But I'm not going to try to do anything I'm not capable of doing."

Williams said he was especially pleased with the contract because "I always have had this feeling of playing for one team my whole career."

"That's not very common these days," he said, "but I would like to do that and this is a stepping stone toward that."

In another signing, Darrin Jackson, the outfielder the Mets did not tender a contract by the Dec. 20 deadline, agreed with the Chicago White Sox on a one-year contract. Jackson, who had a $2.1 million salary this year, accepted a $750,000 salary, but he can double that amount with bonuses based on games played, games started and plate appearances.

Jackson will get a chance to replace Ellis Burks in right field. Burks moved to the Colorado Rockies as a free agent. The Mets let Jackson go because they could not have reduced his salary lower than $1.68 million.

Chris Hoiles, who was eligible for salary arbitration for the first time, reached agreement with Baltimore on a $2 million salary for 1994, a whopping raise from the $350,000 the Oriole catcher earned this year, when he batted .310 with 29 home runs. He can also earn an additional $160,00 in bonuses based on games played or plate appearances.

His teammate Gregg Olson, whom the Orioles did not tender a contract, continued to attract interest yesterday.